


Moving Pictures

by DrunkenOracle



Series: Fallout Four Ficlets [2]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Starlight Drive-in, movies - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-27
Updated: 2015-12-27
Packaged: 2018-05-09 17:34:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5549330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrunkenOracle/pseuds/DrunkenOracle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marlowe Benton returns the gift of Starlight Drive-in to the people of the Commonwealth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> Marlowe Benton has always been fond of the arts, having been an actress and director herself before the world ended.

Marlowe stared in awe at the machine before her as it whirred to life and light sputtered out one end of it, casting video on the wall of the projection tower. Her open lips broke into a smile and laughter bubbled up from her lips and she threw herself back up onto her feet and shut the projector off. Carefully, so carefully, she pushed it back into place and then leaned out the projection tower window.

“Pip!” she cried out, putting all her force behind the shout to carry it down to the ground as best she could. “Hancock! Boys, come here!” Everyone below, settlers and traders alike, stopped to look up at her. Marlowe had been holed up in the tower for days working on only she knew what, and they certainly hadn’t been expecting her to shout over the whole damn settlement all of a sudden.

Two sets of footsteps echoed up the stairwell as Hancock and Pip came running up and Marlowe turned to them, eyes wild with excitement, smile brighter than ever.

“What is it, Babe?” Hancock reached out to Marlowe as he approached her and his rough hand was caught up in hers in a split second.

“Let me show you.” Without releasing his hand she turned back to the projector and flipped the switch, casting a dim glow over the screen at the other end of the settlement. She untangled her fingers from his then and delicately removed a film reel from its canister. Careful, measured motions brought the reel to its resting place in the projection machine and she fed it carefully into a slot. In mere seconds the images were projected on the screen.

Hancock laughed a short sharp bark of a laugh and moved to the projection window, careful to avoid casting a shadow over the screen and Pip joined him not a moment later.

“This is how you used to watch movies, Smiles?” Pip asked, eyes full of awe as he stared out at the moving picture on the screen.

Marlowe’s grin widened, if it was even possible. “It is. At this very drive-in more often than not.” She felt soft laughter escape herself. “Damn, I wasn’t sure I would be able to fix this thing, but… there it is, running as well as it did 200 years ago.” Her eyes stung with tears and she gingerly wiped at them as she stepped toward the window to look down at the settlement. All trading and work had come to a standstill. Everyone was staring up at the screen.

Hancock’s arm snaked around Marlowe’s waist and pulled her close to him just as she felt tears spill forth over her cheeks. “You done good, Smiles,” he murmured.

She took a deep breath and looked down into his eyes. “It’s not done yet… I need to get speakers set up, connect them all to the audio system up here… find the holotapes that go with these film reels... “ She swallowed the knot in her throat when she paused. “But it’s a start.”


End file.
